Questions of Lore and how they translate into the game

[Nothrazim]

I have some questions about the lore that i do not fully understand how they translate into game mechanics, and vice versa. I know the backstory of the lore (how it was formed across several D&D campaigns, and a great deal other created for the game) but there are some spots that are particularly hazy to me, that i would have use of as i intend to introduce my pen&paper group to Erebus in a system we use.

I was wondering how the mana crystals in the game translate to magic and mana in the lore. I know of the Gems of Creation, but other than the gems and a mention of what i assume is a Mind crystal from Garrim Gyr's entry, i don't know how magic takes physical form. Are there deposits of magical crystals in the world? How are they utilized for magical spellcasting, and what would the difference be between having a man-sized chunk of Law magic differ from having a vault of it (if it would be so prevalent). Are they consumed when used, so that you must frequently mine for more? And how do they relate to the Gems of Creation themselves?

Another question i have is how the Illians relate to the ice and snow around them. If, as is especially prominent in Magister's modmod, they thrive on icy land, how do they feed themselves? For a while i though that perhaps Mulcarn had gifted them with the power to subsist on snow and water alone, but this seems to not be the case (as Auric's parents for example were farmers).

A third question relates to goblins: How did they come to be? I know the orcs are the corrupted servants of Bhall, transformed during her fall from grace, but from where did goblins come? Not knowing this, i had planned to explain this as them being the fallen version of halflings (i know there are no such thing as hobbits or halflings in Erebus as it would clash with the dark fantasy, but i would explain that as them dying off from wars and erased entirely during the Age of Ice). Also touching on that topic, what of Frostlings? I know they are something akin to demons of ice (or perhaps ice spirits in physical form may be more accurate), but are there any particular reason why they are so similar to goblins in visual appearance?

Fourth and finally, there are some facets of the Bannor's existence in Hell i do not entirely understand. Which part was it they inhabited? How did they survive the fall, including not facing the fire and fury of Bhall and her fallen angels once they arrived? I also seem to recall seeing a post somewhere by our venerable MagisterCultuum indicating that they were not-entirely-human while there, requiring no nourishment nor procreation - but then shouldn't they have been very, very easy pickings for the demons? And, who from Patria were they? Capria's family as i understood it were nobles, but is anything told of the others?

 

[tecumseh23]

Well, I'm no Magister, but I'll give this a shot.

1. Trouble is you've picked some spots that are hazy for everyone . As far as I know the actual workings of physical chunks of mana were never really explained in detail by Kael, so I can't help you there. I can tell you that the mana deposits originally come from infinite planes of each sphere (fire, water, law, etc)--these planes were (as far as I can remember) created by Agares right before the Fall, so that he could channel their energies and keep some power if the One removed the power of ex-nilho creation from the gods (which he did). The mana deposits on Erebus were placed there by Agares, and allow gods, angels, demons, etc to channel power through them. Humans are also able to channel energy from these mana deposits and their planes--so, use magic--because they are descended from Nemed, the original god of life, although historically there was little knowledge or skilled use of magic until Kyrolin showed up.

2. As for the Illians...it's worth mentioning that even in very cold environments, there is still food. Not much, besides caribou and wolves and such, but some. It's also worth mentioning that there are some differences between the pure, untainted lore and how the lore appears in game mechanics. That Illians thrive in the ice and snow is something they agree on; Magister's modmod, if I'm not mistaken, shows this by having the Illians get more food out of ice tiles than other civs. Is that the absolutely best way to show the affinity Illians have for the cold? Maybe not, but there's only so many ways you can fit the lore into the game mechanics--and even less ways when you want it to work and be fun. For a slightly more lore-y answer though, I'd say that the Illian population has never been super-huge; they're very much a rural, backwater people, who have been that way since the Age of Magic. Even their takeover during the Age of Ice didn't really change that; they didn't advance, the world just fell to their level, which is very much a metaphor for the precept of Ice and the stasis it embodies.

3. These are getting long... Goblins are, as far as I know, also corrupted servants of Bhall. Why are they midgets with long ears? Go figure. Ogres are in the same boat, while the Lizardmen are actually a completely unrelated species, created by human mages during the Age of Magic. One theory for the goblin/orc/ogre divides could be the strength of the precept of Fire--Bhall's domain, incorporating physical fire as well as anger, rage, etc--inside each individual when they fell. Meaning Ogres are the highest on the scale, orcs middle, goblins bottom. But as far as I know there's nothing official explaining this.

4. This one I have some facts on. The Bannor fell to the third level of Hell, the plane of Strife (or War, or Chaos), ruled by Camulos, god of the same. Camulos's hell is an endless battleground, where demons fight each other and the migrating souls of the damned--most of whom never get any farther in their journey than here. Those souls (who are, or course, immortal) are hunted, slaughtered, tortured, etc by demons until they themselves, overcome by pain, fear, and hate, begin to turn into demons themselves. Now the Bannor: for backstory, the Bannor were originally a nation-state/religious order within the Patrian Empire, during the Age of Magic. The Bannor worshiped Bhall. Before Bhall's fall, Fire was not only a "good" precept but number one when it came to fighting evil, especially the sorcerer lords of Patria--the fight against whom during the civil war was led by the Bannor, along of course with a repentant Kyrolin. When Bhall fell, her worshippers--mainly the Bannor, but also any others--fell with her, their righteous anger turning into blind rage, the holy warriors turning into monsters. In the Bannor capitol (Braduk/Baraduk, you know the place; later the Burning), a number of people took refuge in a cathedral of Junil; Sabethiel, Junil's archangel, took pity on them and protected them as nearly the entire city was dragged by Bhall with her down to Hell. Bhall herself fell all the way to the bottom, to Agares's hell, but the Bannor survivors fell off at the third level. While they had been living when the fall began, and technically still were, while in Hell they existed as immortal souls--so they were able to fight against demons down in Hell, for hundreds of years, without food or water, or aging. When they managed to fight their way out by the end of the Age of Ice, they became mortal again as they returned to Erebus (keep in mind that Hell isn't really below Erebus in a physical sense; no matter how deep you dig you won't be able to reach it, similar with heaven; they exist as (multiple) different planes). These Bannor were for the most part a very random assortment of people, though like you mentioned it included several noble families, as well as many warriors (though keep in mind that that is literally nearly everyone in Bannor society).

One last fun fact real quick: humans in earlier ages had longer lifespans than their descendants. Meaning that Nemed's kids lived for a thousand years, and modern day elves (who for various reasons have gotten through much fewer generations, hanging out with Sucellus being one of them) can live for centuries. Even in the Age of Magic, people with pure/noble bloodlines could expect to live well over a century; the Age of Ice was a huge dropoff, with the life expectancy plummeting to around thirty, which would round off to around sixty or seventy in the Age of Rebirth. The point here is that the original Bannor (meaning, the ones who escaped from Hell) have much longer lifespans than their subjects. Capria, who was only a teenage during the time in Hell, lived well over a century, and Bannor nobility in general can expect long lives.

Alright, hope that helps, cause it wore me out. Always glad to see people interested in this game's beautiful story!

 

[Diavolo Rosso]

have you tried the archive of cannon lore posts? i think all of these questions have been asked in the past.

 

[Nothrazim]

Thank you both very much for your answers. Though i know much of the lore, there were some features of tecumseh23's post i did not realize i had gotten wrong; and the archives - that i did not know existed until now - allowed me to search for and specifically identify and further the knowledge i lacked (such as that goblins are to elves what orcs are to humans).